Robert Hooke

Nothing is more exciting to a biographer than the 'discovery' of a 'missing' portrait of their subject. But all too often, in their eagerness for new material, even scholars are duped, as Lisa Jardine discovered to her cost. Fortunately, scientific methods are making it easier to spot the fakes, as the National Gallery's new exhibition proves

Letters: Although the discovery of Robert Hooke's minutes (Eureka!, February 9) is extremely interesting and important, the documents do not, as quoted in your article, establish with any certainty that Hooke beat Huygens to the invention of a spring-regulated watch.

Though a victim of his own irascibility, Robert Hooke was a true Renaissance man whose achievements have been obscured. Jenny Uglow welcomes Lisa Jardine's crisp reappraisal in The Curious Life of Robert Hooke